COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A poor first set hitting percentage could not be overcome as the Southwestern University women's volleyball team was defeated 3-0 by Colorado College on Saturday afternoon in the Reid Arena.

Southwestern (10-8, 6-2 SCAC) dropped to third place in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference with the 25-23, 25-20, 25-18 loss just behind Texas Lutheran, which is 7-2 in the conference.

Meanwhile, the host Tigers (13-6, 5-3 SCAC) jumped into fourth place in the SCAC with the victory.

Southwestern led by as many as four midway through the first set before Colorado College used a 12-5 run to take a 22-19 lead.

Back-to-back kills by Lily McWhorter and Riley Brantley drew the Pirates to within 22-21 before both teams traded points until the Tigers took the set 25-23.

Colorado College blitzed its way out to a 15-5 lead in the second set before the Pirates slashed their way back into the match with an 11-1 run thanks to five kills of their own and six attack errors by the Tigers.

McWhorter and Jessica Kuras caused two of those attack errors when they teamed up to block a pair of attacks and McWhorter teamed up with Alex Husen to record another block knot the set up at 16-16.

The Tigers, unfortunately, weathered the second set storm from Southwestern and took the set 25-20.

The third set would see Colorado College take the lead late and not relinquish it after a see-saw affair for most of the stanza.

Emma White's nine kills led the Pirates while McWhorter added eight of her own.

Annika Flora was tops in assists with 11 followed closely by Claire Romo's 10.

Geneva Nedrow's 10 digs were tops among the 11 different Pirates to defend a Colorado College attack attempt.

UP NEXT

Southwestern will continue play in the SCAC next weekend with a trio of matches at the Austin College Tri-Match in Sherman, Texas. The Pirates will take on Dallas (11 a.m. CDT) and Centenary (5 p.m. CDT) on Friday, Oct. 14, before finishing the weekend against the host Austin at 10 a.m. CDT the next morning.